Lawn Mowing Simulator and the Fantasy of Honest Work

It’s easy to dismiss “Simulator” games. Their lineage wavers wildly between extremely niche titles like the earlier Flight Sim games - built with a focus toward hardcore users - all the way to joke games (who could forget Goat Simulator). Recent years in particular have seen the genre become something more broadly appealing, with the astounding Microsoft Flight Simulator, the meditative House Flipper and the tranquil Euro Truck Simulator.

These games don’t have the conflict driven by action adventures, the competitive nature of multiplayer shooters or the deep narrative of your favourite RPG. What they offer is something more base; a more primal satisfaction fundamental to the feeling of simply doing a good job.

Checking out Lawn Mowing Simulator started out as a bit of a gag. I’ve been getting grass jokes all my life - trust me, if you think you’ve got a good one, I’ve probably heard it - so it felt on brand. More than that however, there was a certain curiosity for the genre overall in the back of my brain that drew me toward the idea of riding a lawn mower around in circles all day.

There’s kind of not much I can tell you that you won’t already glean from the name, but I’ll lay it out anyway. You’re a budding young entrepreneur in the grass clipping space, with $3000 burning a hole in your pocket, a shiny new ride-on mower to blow it on, and a burgeoning client base to satisfy.

You’ll begin with just a single, relatively simple patch of grass to slay, earning pay and reputation points for doing a good job. You’ll head back to your garage after a hard days work, patch up and refill your mower, then head out the next day for more.

Before jumping on your mower, you’ll have a few minutes to wander around the yard in first person, pick up any objects that might get in your way and plan out your mode of attack. You can skip this if you’d like, but you get some bonus cash for doing so - and maybe even pocket the odd valuable while you’re at it. 

There is a timer keeping track of how long it takes you to finish the job, netting you bonus pay for quicker cuts and penalties for dawdling. At first this felt against the more relaxing feel of the experience, but it’s mostly just a guide. Still, it would be nice to just be able to turn it off.

As you build up a steady reputation and bank balance, you’ll be able to expand your business with more, shinier mowers, as well as hire employees to plop onto them. Soon you’ll have plenty of cash rolling in - but you’ll still be able to keep doing the grunt work yourself as well.

The appeal of having a straightforward task to do, with a guaranteed reward, rounded out with a feeling of satisfaction for physically completing something, is palpable. Much of what “work” has come to epitomize in the 2020’s is fraught with complications, difficulty and bureaucracy. A year ago, in my desperate search for a job that was anything but what I’d spent the past several years doing, I applied for a grave keeper position. I figured, how hard could it possibly be?

Turns out I was already locked out of the position before even applying. Without a White Card (for operating heavy machinery), a Certificate III in Gravedigging, Grounds and Maintenance and a minimum of twelve months experience(?) I was heavily unqualified.

Being simply a competent adult is becoming less and less the base level to lead a successful white/blue collar life with each passing year. It’s hard enough to get a base level job without some form of specialized (and often costly) training - let alone starting and being successful at your own business.

This is the fantasy that Lawn Mowing Simulator - and all other sims like it - offers. They remove the friction of modern society from the equation, deconstructing the barriers put in place by the late capitalist model. Instead, they simply offer a hard day's work with appropriate compensation. Some might even call that livin’ the dream.